A New Tree Blossoms
by 1Deivle
Summary: Sakura had a breakdown after what she thought was the last battle with Kaguya. Little did she know that Kaguya had tricked them, Sakura returned to find what little remained of the ninja population was destroyed. In despair, she threw everything she had at the God-like creature, yet she did not expect what the woman had planned for her. Time-travel fic Sakura to the 1st shinobi war
1. Chapter 1

**Ok so this is just a side project that I have been thinking about, hope you enjoy my ramblings. Let me know what you think **

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The world had changed, when Kaguya was awoken. It had forced everyone to put aside tier petty squabbles and come together. It was really surprising what the nations could do when they worked together. All it had taken was a truly massive event, it had taken the threat of the end of the world to bring them all together. There were now so few ninja left though, and though not all the weak ones died, those who remained were stronger. Almost all of her friends from the Sand and Leaf all most every one had lost the majority of their ninja and were lucky if they even had any civilian populations left.

Sakura looked around her as the battle ground was littered with bits and pieces of ninja., She was torn between terrified of finding them dead yet at the same wanting to bring them back, searching for the two bodies of the boys she loved dearly. The ones she had desperately tried to save in the past. She had tried to join the fight, and she had fought hard but they pushed her aside, they didn't trust her strength, so she went back to the main battle destroying wave after wave as more people died around her. She had to make the decision of saving chakra to heal people to go back and fight or keep fighting and save them that way, and she chose to save, that's what she did after all. Her reserves holding back the forces until there was a shockwave that went through the air and she saw both Naruto and Sasuke being flung through the sky. Both of their massive chakra signatures barely even registering. Kaguya's signature was draining from the air and surrounding areas as well, they had done it.

She looked over to Shino and he gave her a nod as she pumped through the remaining enemies to try and find them. They couldn't be dead, and when she finally was able to bring her mind together she was able to sense a flicker of energy and hastened towards it. What she saw broke her heart, but she had to try and save them. They had lost so much blood, they were both missing limbs and they were suffering from incredible severe chakra depletion, even naruto.

"S-s-sakura," she could hear naruto whisper as glowing green hands, pushed to save him. " we got her " he trailed into a cough

"Don't talk baka!" Sakura said cauterizing most of the wounds to stop the bleeding as she moved to Sasuke, both of them were missing their arm, but Sasuke was also missing a good part of one of his legs. Though he could barely open his eyes he still glared at her while she worked, he had joined them to stop Kaguya to help the Ninja world, but not to come back to her, maybe Naruto, but not her. She worked to heal him, no matter how much she tried to do for him, no matter how much she still loved him; he thought she was weak and an annoyance, even when she was trying to save his life.

She herd another medic come by and give her an update, most of the enemies had either been eliminated or disappeared with Kaguya, they were counting the dead as she spoke. "Take Naruto to the camp and continue healing him, he is a high priority," Sakura told the medic not breaking concentration to pull Sasuke from the edge, there were so many wounds and she wasn't sure how long she could go either, Sakura opened her mouth and the other medic nin threw a chakra enhancer in her mouth, every little bit counted and she had to, she just had to save him, images of them as kids flew threw her mind.

"N..no Sakura I'm not leave you and Sasuke,"Naruto weakly said as the medic moved to get him, "We just got back together,"

That didn't stop you both from pushing me out of the main fight she thought bitterly. Naruto I thought at least you still wouldn't underestimate me, "we are not separating Naruto, sow shut it." She looked over to the medic who nodded at her. They all were used to taking her orders by now. After Tsunade and Kakashi passed the one who had been holding things together had been her. She was the only one who had experience working to keep it all together. She had been the one keeping track of everyone, going to the meetings, the planning, and all while keeping track of the medics. She had been able to keep order in the small group there was left of the ninja. Shikamaru had helped, but he had lost so many he had become wary of his own ability to make decisions.

"They will be coming back to camp as soon as she had Sasuke stable." the medic said picking up the injured boy

"No no we have to stay toge-" Naruto went limp as sakura took a millisecond to through a needle into his neck to put him out, "That should have been your job" Sakura harshly said, "get him back to base now."

"S .. stop, sakura" Sasuke's voice came out choppy but bitter, she knew what he was trying to say, he was too injured, but he didn't know what she was capable of. And there were so many advancements in medicine now, mostly due to her and Tsunade. she would make his leg and arm from scratch, there would be no problem. "Be quiet before I put you out too." she ordered a little lighter, affection bleeding into her voice, but even though she was just trying to be kind she could see the recoil in his face, he truly found her disgusting didn't he.

He didn't even want her to touch him. The thought was making her sick, and the fact that this was making her sick made her feel guilty. So many people died today, and even more had died in the last few weeks of the attacks. Not wanting to feel his disgust at her anymore or wanting to think about it she knocked him out, he was safe now, she was able to categorize the wounds and heal a portion of the life threatening ones that he had taken, he just needed a blood transfusion and time to deal with the chakra exhaustion. She stood picking him up, but as she was about to head to the camp she thought she could feel another sharp chakra signature, but just as she felt it, it was gone.

Sakura carried him back to camp and placed him in the same tent as Naruto, letting the other medics treat their wounds as Sakura went to her own tent and passed out, the day finally taking its toll on her body as it gave in to the days of exhaustion. When she woke she noticed that the mood of the camp was lighter than it had been in ages. She did not know how long she slept but it must have been a while because it was night again, momentarily wondering why

no one woke her she decided to focus on checking on her patients, she went to the gravely injured and passed through making sure all of the medics knew what they were doing, and helping the ones that were far beyond their capabilities. There were clearly people who had died while she had slept, but she could not worry about that now. She used to take turns with tsunade one working while the other rested, when she died there was no one to truly help bring those from the edge back they just didn't have the know how or the chakra controle she had.

As she made her final rounds through the tent she could tell it was getting into the beginnings of morning, and she felt a flutter in her chest of excitement at the thought of visiting her next patients. She headed to one of the nicer tents and heard the merry laugh of Naruto.

"And then I jumped down on the creature summoning my toads on to its head! You should have seen it! It was Amazing Sasuke!" his bright voice filled the air with a familiar warmth and a nostalgic laugh that brought her back to a better time. As she moved towards the tent she heard another laugh come from with in. Was that Sasuke? She had never heard him laugh. She was dumbfounded and excited to be a part of their warmth, and she rushed into the tent.

Naruto looked up and smiled at her his arm bandaged he was sitting on the end of Sasuke's bed. As she entered she saw Sasuke's face fall, any fun he was having obviously ruined his mood. Naruto caught on to it and tried to lighten the air with an awkward laugh, "Come on in Sakura! I was just telling Sasuke about the time -"

"I am sure she already knows the story Naruto." Sasuke interjected, "She was there"

"Ah, soka, your right she was, ha ha," Naruto let out another awkward laugh. Sakura felt sick, was this what she had been hoping so long for? What she had been getting stronger for? What she had been fighting for? They sounded so happy before she came in, it almost felt like she could feel their bond bringing her back to a simpler time, one where Kona was safe and there was not so much death. Her chest hurt, it hurt so much, more than just her heart.

"I … " she choked out, "was just doing my rounds and… just wanted to… I.. I..should just leave… " Sakura said turning to leave the two together

"No Sakura don't" Naruto semi pleaded, it was fine she could hear in his voice he was happy to get some more time with Sasuke, they after all were the friends, they were the ones who were a real team, they were the ones… always them.

"Let her go Naruto, I'm sure she has work to do." Sasuke said his eyes boring into her, clearly annoyed and still just so angry. What had she done that was so bad, why did he forgive Naruto yet constantly treat her as though she was less than the shit on the bottom of his shoe.

Sakura left, questions running through her head, she couldn't focus. Then her surrounding area came more into focus, how could she not recognize so many faces? There were a few here and there Shino, Chogi, Shikamaru, and Hinata was somewhere. But there were so many gone, all the people she used to go to for comfort Ino, her best friend, died not long after her father. She sacrificed herself so that they could get the last shot in on a particularly difficult opponent in the midst of battle. One by one so many went down like that, or other ways, it felt like the only thing they all had in common these days was that loss.

God she wished Ino was there, sitting calming her down, a flash of her dead body went through her head, her father, and a myriad of others she could not save. And the hate in Suaskes , eyes and the indifference to her presence Naruto had these days. They didn't give two craps if she was there all they wanted her to do was patch them up so that they could go at it again. The thought of that hurt every fiber in her being. How the hell was everything supposed to go back to how it was, there were no nations, no real government, fuck there were barely any people to fucking govern.

She thought back to the tent and tried to shake it out of her head she couldn't decide if it was better or worse than remembering her lost comrades, the fact that they were lost, or the fact that this crap after all this time still affected her. Then the last words echoed in her head, 'i should just leave'

"Yeah" she mumbled under her breath, "i need to get out of here." adrenaline began pumping through her system, her chest ached with anticipation. Her breath got heavier as she tried to push breathing the pressure from her chest. "I need to go." she needed to compose herself. Or did she, the war was over right, Kaguya was defeated. There were only a few in the hospital that were critical but if the other medics couldn't at least take care of that then, then…. Fuck it. Her reserves were gone she had whole armies reserves of chakra built up, but this war war beyond fighting armies she was fighting gods. Not anymore though, she went to her tent only grabbing the bare essentials. Running her hand through her hair she felt crazed, like she was in a manic state. She let out an odd and half crazed laugh that she immediately cut once she felt one of the medics approach, she let the tent as the girl walked up to her.

"We just got a new group in from the smaller camp down river, apparently they could not handle the overflow."

"Ok, so why are you coming to me? Take care of it" she ordered

"Mama?" the middle aged medic nin looked confused, "you usually like to look over the new patients yourself for diagnostics if they are badly wounded."

"Nope, Im done." Sakura said moving forward, she was not going to get drawn into this

"What?" the medic looked shocked, unable to comprehend

"You heard me, I have done my service. The war is done and so am I. the meetings the shifts, all of you will be fine without me for a while at least."

"So you are coming back?"

"Yes… i think." her voice was strained and rushed, she tried to calm down but her body was on overdrive, "But right now. I just can't stand the sight of any of this, the people, the stench the reminders of what life used to be like, and people who are trying to make it like that again…. I.. I just, I'm done cleaning up everyones fucking messes! Let Naruto know that I wish him the best, he always wanted to lead so I fucking give him the reins. He can grow up and do that now that his precious Sasuke is back" She needed to get out for a few days a few weeks until she was fully charged until she could face everyone and do what needed to be done, she didn't want to snap around any of her old friends right now, not when the war was finally over. She was a mess now, and she needed to get out and get her mind in order.

…. 3 months had passed

Sakura had been in the forest just catching food, and resting. The whole time refilling her seal in her head all day not only to replenish what she lost, but also to keep her signature untraceable. They would have a hard time tracking her with either since Kakashi's dogs and Kiba were both dead, god how had so many of them died. How had it happened, and where did the time go? She had needed to get away, it was amazing how clouded her mind had been. The first few weeks she had gone through a myriad of emotions all to the extreme, happiness, heartbroken, frustration, distrust, loneliness. After she evened out it was like she was empty, like there was no room for emotions left inside of her, she wondered if this was what Sasuke felt like, just too tired to feel anymore? No he felt. He felt plenty of hatred and annoyance, he even felt joy with Naruto. She was able to look back at her past as the days went forward during her numb period, she was analytical, she felt like it was how a true ninja should be. It was not her though, and after a while, she began to feel like herself again, but with a clear mind and a focus she had not had in ages. She had been able to work through all the shit that she had been piling up inside of her, and though she knew she needed to go back she didn't want to give up the quiet just yet.

So she didn't, and for a few weeks she just took time to rethink and grow her chakra pools. Then it happened. She could feel the earth shake and the giant chakra signature that she thought was dead returned. Her mind flashed back to the battlefield, to that tiny amount of chakra that she had felt. She had survived. And the land was breaking under the unopposed weight of her chakra. Sakura fueled her legs with chakra as she bounded towards the old camp. She pushed from tree to tree moving faster than she ever had before. Why had she waited to go back?! She chastised herself over and over, and as she went to land on a limb to propel herself forward the earth shook again and the lost her balance, she pushed chakra into her fetas she whipped around the branch rather than falling and steadied herself looking into the sky. It was bright with red and black smoke. Her vision blurry for a moment with worry then immediately moved faster towards it. She thought she heard screams and shouting, but it was just the smashing of trees. Where were the giant jutsus there chakra bursts, anything? As she got closer the lack of chakra signatures became more and more apparent.

Then she reached the camp. There was no need to examine the bodies. There was not need to search the wreckage, but it didn't stop her body from doing it automatically. Everyone was dead. They had never won. She felt sick, she could have done something. Why did she leave in the first place. She closed her eyes desperately trying to identify something a heartbeat a chakra signature. But they were all gone. All she could feel was the heat and power of Kaguya growing stronger and stronger. She was alone, and she had left them alone and defenseless. Her friends, gods how could she face them in the next life. She was in charge, she was the one who was supposed to keep everything together. Hot tears began to stream down her face as her mind swirled.

Without even knowing where she was going she was staring at the Kaguya. Time was nothing it didn't matter all that mattered was that they were all dead and she couldn't think of anything else but to join them whether they hated her or not, she would go out with a bang. She let her seal unravel the cakra overflowing her system she attacked Kaguya.

The fight had lasted longer than Sakura had expected. She had pulled all of her power and might that she had been able to save and thrust it at the overwhelming power that was Kaguya. The ned though was inevitable, her size and power negated any real damage Sakura could do. She had done damage though, just not enough, nowhere near enough. She may over power any man, but she was by no means a god. And finally she had spent the last of her chakra and she could feel her body reeling as Kaguya stood over her.

"You surprised me, girl. You should feel no shame in this defeat, for you fought with power that would destroy any other creature. Astounding really." Kaguya bent over sakura picking up her pink locks splattered with blood. "Especially for one not from my family line. No connection to my blood, yet so powerful. If your friends had fought with you they may have succeeded, but there is something to be said about how blind they were to true power, a simple trick and they were left weak and defenseless. Maybe if you had been a part of my line, they would not have disappointed me so. " Kaugas eyes narrowed, and a small smile played on her lips. "Suck a pretty pink color. Do you know the meaning of the Cherry Blossom Tree?"

Sakura was too weak to answer, she could barely breathe and it took all her strength to stare at Kaguya with a helpless anger that filled her soul. She killed them she destroyed everything everyone, why hadn't she killed her by now.

"The Cherry trees bloom beautifully for two weeks, a spectacle that all around took great joy in, then their blossoms fall and are whisked away by the wind. The cherry blossoms are so fragile and have short lives, but they entrance all who see them. They are a reminder that life is overwhelmingly beautiful, but also tragically short." Kaguya let go of Sakura's hair letting it float to the ground. "Perhaps I would like to see another season of blossoms, to see if it becomes more magnificent that the past one."

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**OK so let me know what you think, Id love to know **


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow, I can not say how happy I am that so many people have enjoyed my first chapter! I am so thankful to everyone who commented!**

**I really hope I disappoint for this one! **

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**Re-Awakening **

The first sensation she felt was a warm breeze on her skin. Was she finally dead? She felt as though she had been sleeping for years, her body was heavy and her limbs felt as though they were weighted. As she lifted her heavy eyelids she was convinced she must have passed on. She was in the middle of a giant grove of Cherry Trees. All in full bloom and towering over her. The ground was soft and bright moss and flower petal covered the ground, a tear fell down her cheek. All she could think of was how beautiful it was. The air around her smelled so fresh and clean and it was as though her own chakra filled everything around her. Then as she slowly

Began to grow feeling in her limbs, she tried to get up.

She immediately realized she was completely naked, and about two sizes too small. Even so, the towering trees and the chakra in the air made her forget her discomfort. Her seal was still there but empty, she couldn't remember why but she was so entranced she didn't want to bother as to why. Her chakra stands were the same. Though they felt as though they were buzzing with the energy of the place. As she turned around she saw the most magnificent Cherry tree she had ever seen. It was giant and its branches canopied over her and many of the other trees connecting them to make the sky a stained glass of pink flowers and bright green leaves with the sun shining through. She walked up to the tree and placed her hand on it. It was as though she could feel its pulse, she closed her eyes. The wind blew her as her hair floated around her body, it was long again and the blossoms flowed with it.

"There it is" she whispered with a small smile of satisfaction, lit up her face like it usually did when she figured out something new. She had found the flow of chakra in the tree. It was like hers, or was hers more like the trees? She could not tell. She closed her eyes feeling the pulse of the tree once again breathing in the peace that surrounded her.

She was so calm, more than she deserved to be. She removed her hand looking at it as memories began flowing back to her. Where was everyone? Their faces flashed through her mind and like a punch in the stomach she remembered what she did. Her heart rate increased and the limbs around her began to whip with the wind, and then as the wind died tears fell from her face. She wasn't there for her comrades. Naruto flashed in front of her face, his stark blue eyes matching the blue in the sky above her. That was never his ninja way, he may have been a dumbass, and he may have put her into more dangerous situations than he helped her with. But he always, always tried his best to help his friends.

And she had run. Because of what? Sasuke? Was she really that weak still? She shook her head. Looking around again she counted her breaths claiming under the canopy of Blossoms. She was an odd mix of sad and glad that they were not there. She wouldn't know what to say to them. Sorry, would never be enough no matter how many times she apologized she could never take back her actions. How did the gods forgive her?

Gods… Kaguya… wh…. What happened with, Sakura squatted as she tried to remember. There was such a heavy fog in her brain filled with hate and guilt and sorrow, none of which she wanted to feel. Then the words floated into her head, Another season of blossoms? What had she meant by that? Think. Think. Think!

There must have been some reason. But for now she was tired, her limbs were still heavy. She let herself fall to the ground as she rested her head to the soft soil she prayed for a dreamless slumber.

She was not so lucky, the war may have been over but her mind still remembered it. And as night came a chill entered the air, Sakura shivered. Were there supposed to be nightmares in heaven, was she supposed to get cold? She questioned as she wrapped her arms around herself. Unable to sleep she decided to investigate her area. She was in the center of about a half mile of just Cherry trees, they all seemed to be connected to the large one in the center. At the edge of the grove was what looked like a forest. It smelled oddly familiar yet different, and she was not sure how that made her feel. "What is this place?" she questioned into the air. After surveying the area she went back to the main tree she put her hand to it and it was warm she decided to rest in the trees warmth, and as though answering a thought she saw the perfect place in its roots to rest.

She rested like this every day for a full 3 weeks, she never grew hungry and she restored her chakra seal at an astonishing rate the life around her flowing through her constantly replenishing what was lost as though she was connected to an IV of chakra. She wondered if this was what Naruto used to feel like?

By the time the second week began she was getting bored. Inner peace was one thing, but no matter how guilty about it she felt she had already had a break. She needed something to do, see someone. So she decided to explore the woods outside of her groove. Before she left she sat outside and cast not one not two but five high-level genjutsu and other jutsu traps on the grove, she wasn't sure why but she was if nothing overly cautious, she spent about half of her chakra on it except her reserves. They were intricate and time-consuming but not chakra heavy. Her sannin level chakra control was a gift she never truly appreciated until Tsunade took her under her care. She was always so used to being next to the two powerhouses, that she never thought she could compare. But raw power isn't everything, the little details is what truly sets the talented apart from the masters she thought as the last few layers of her genjutsu fell into place the Sakura blossoms fading into a darker green forest.

She turned and braided her hair down her back a few tendrils falling to the sides of her face as she walked forward into the woods. For some reason outside of the grove feeling naked felt a lot more exposed, and her old habits began to kick in. she was sending feelers out and masking her chakra.

She admired the trees, so many felt familiar there was something so familiar about these woods she thought as she jumped to one of the branches and began moving from branch to branch. Then one of her chakra feelers hit something more than a deer or other forest animal, it hit people. She bounded forward confident that her signature was hidden. As she came across them she noticed it was a medium sized group of what looked like traders. But what were civilian traders doing in her afterlife? She kept herself hidden as she followed their movements for a while. They seemed normal, they were talking normally, and about mundane things. It was as though they really were just traders. Finally, Sakura decided to introduce herself, and maybe get some.. Clothes. It was embarrassing but not as embarrassing for some reason if she was fully grown.

She walked from the forest onto the path in front of them as the whole group froze and just stared at the little naked pink haired girl. Sakura scratched the back of her head and bringing her long braid to the front to cover up a bit, "Um excuse me, My name is Sakura and I was just wondering if you had some clothes to spare?"

One of the few women of the group began to move to one of the carts, and an older man stopped her in her tracks, "Stop, you don't know if she is some sort of bandit or worse she could be a part of one of the ninja clans, looks at her, pink hair and alone in the forest. that looks like the definition of suspicious." Sakura couldn't help but feel like the old man was very spot on, if they were in reversed situations she wouldn't trust her either.

"No you look at her" the woman responded angry "She is a little girl and no matter what situation, or how bad this war gets between those idiotic ninjas, it won't stop me from helping a little girl." And Sakura was so happy to hear that the rest, or at least this woman, was not as guarded as the older man.

Sakura's eyebrow went up when she registered what the woman said. War? A part of a clan? What were they talking about? Had she survived somehow? Had she been able to bring herself back? "Thank you" she mumbled as the woman wrapped the dress around her tying the front. She stood and held out her hand "My name is Kon. what's your name little one?"

"Sakura," she said slowly, what was going on? "I'm really confused. Which war is going on?"

Kon looked confused, then worried as she looked back to her group, "Hey Akira could you wake up Sura I think we need to get this girl checked out." Kon then put her hand behind the girls back ushering her towards the group of people.

"Isn't the war over, who is even fighting anymore?" Sakura asked slowly, not liking the pitting looks of those around her.

"Please" huffed one of the drivers, "those clans will never stop fighting, damn ninja making life hard for everyone just so they can practice killing. Insanity."

Clans? "What clans?" she felt herself asking, she could feel anxiety growing in her chest.

Kon looked down at her, "Well clans are like a ninjas family." Kon tried to explain looking like she was having a hard time, not knowing the right terms for a kid, but trying really hard to think of how to explain it, she almost looked like Naruto

"Kon she asked what clans not what are clans." the man said obviously annoyed, "and kid there are different types of em, but mostly around these parts there are the Uchiha, Sejnu, Hyuga….."

The voices began to blur into the background as pieces began fitting, "so then this is the First War?" she asked, but almost as a revelation

"First?" Kon said looking back down at the girl. "Don't worry this is the war for all of them to get the order of power right, then they will stop with all the craziness."

"Please the girls probably right." again the man's voice was fading in and out as she was putting things together in her mind, "They have been fighting for generations if they ever did finally agree on something they would probably end up fighting again. It is just what ninja are, not humans but monsters those things." He turned and saw that another young man was coming out with what looked like a packet of meds and supplies. the old man signaled for him to put it back. Though Kon sent him a harsh look, she didn't try again to get any supplies. She took her coat and put it around Sakura tying the midsection tighter.

Monsters, a shiver went up her spine. Kaguya. What had she done? _Perhaps … I would like to see another season of blossoms… become more….. magnificent than the past …..._

Could she really be in the past? She looked up as the woman picked her up and set her in one of the carriages and they continued their way down the road. "We are heading to the city a half a day from here near the foot of a mountain, is that where you are from, little one?"

"No…. I am from…. Where I was from doesn't… exist." Sakura said slowly, unsure of how to proceed. She should get to the town they were talking about and go from there. If she really was in the past then she would have to ….. what, what could she do? She had no country, no land, no money. Faces began to flash through her mind. Naruto, Ino, Hinata, Shikamaru so many of her friends; at one point she probably would have relied on them to know what to do. She felt silly for a moment as she remembered who she was. She was not someone that needed saving. She was the apprentice and aid to not one but two Hokages, and kept a broken group of ninja on the same side and together operating for months on end.

This she could handle, she thought to take a breath, she just needed a little practice getting her story straight, "I came from a small nomadic clan of healers. We were on our way south and I had been sick and drinking only medicine for the past few days with high temperatures. It wasn't until it was too late that they realized that the water was poisoned. It affected their mind fist keeping them drinking then their physical health deteriorated. I buried them and burned everything that could have been infected with the poison as well. Including my clothes." Keep it short and look sad, as she looked up she could tell she was getting the pitying looks she wanted.

"You poor thing." the young woman said eventually, "Well you are welcome to stay with us until we reach the village. It is a large trading village and I am sure we can find a nice family to take you in."

"Thank you." Sakura said, these were kind people it seemed, and she felt a twinge of sadness lying to them, but it's not like she could tell them the truth. That would just make her crazy, and she was not crazy, at least she really hoped that she was not crazy.

Eventually, they made their way to the town and the young woman brought her to one of the ruling families homes, it seemed that the lords ruled over the town instead of a unified government, or the lords worked in tandem when it came to the trading villages, it seemed a big mess to her. "I feel bad just leaving you here, but we have a second leg of our journey to make and you will be safer here ok sweetheart. But here" she said kneeling and giving her a clay tablet with a small seal on it, "This is our companies logo, feel free to say hi if you ever see us coming through!" and with that, the young woman was gone. One day Sakura thought if she ever saw her again she would try to repay her for being so kind.

Sakura was guided into a very official looking room, it reminded her alot of Tunades office when she was avoiding her work. Stacks of paper lining the walls and piled up on the desk and a guard or two at the door. She saw an middle aged man with a large blue beard peering down at here. "So you are the little Sakura?"

"Yes sir."

"Well, the Totori traders told me that they would appreciate if we made some room for you here in our village. We have a nice orphanage that you can stay at until a nice family adopts you. The war has left one two many of our own orphaned and there are always more coming from the surrounding areas. But you are not so young, around 11 or 12? Soon you will be able to afford to work or take an apprenticeship. Now off you go, the woman outside will take you." He waved his large hand to shoo her away, but Sakura planted her feet.

"I truly appreciate your hospitality, Lord, but I do not need to go to an orphanage. I am a trained healer, and if you would allow me to stay in your village I will sustain myself the ways I was taught to."

The man looked down at her a blank face of a well trained lord or merchant, "Are you from one of the clans?"

"No, but I do heal using chakra and can defend myself if necessary."

"So then, you are a ninja of some sort?" he paused and she was not exactly sure of how to respond, she thought back to how the driver of the traders thought of the ninja and she had to make the assumption that that was a commonly held idea for village folk during this time.

"No," she said slowly

"You seem unsure of your answer, perhaps you would like to try again little one." the man said his voice smore stern, after noticing her hesitation.

"Though, I have the training of a ninja, my family never participated in this war." she took a breath,' think on your feet you can do it!' She heard her inner say. "It was why my tribe was nomadic, we used to go from village to village healing both civilian and ninja, I suppose we may have been targeted for that. But we never wanted anything to do with this stupid war!"

The man took a breath and brushed his beard, "I appreciate your forthcomingness, we have to have agreements with many of the clans in the area. Even when they are meaningless in the eyes of most, we generally try and stay out of each others way." she could tell the man had a habit of grinding his teeth when he was thinking. "Are you a good healer?" he asked

"The best." she said firmly

The man let out a sigh and ran his fingers through his beard one last time, "Well, while it is good to hear that you are so confident in your abilities, we can not have you staying in the village. It would be a burden on the minds of the townsfolk to have a ninja living among them." Sakura opened her mouth about to come forward with another reason any reason to let her stay, before she could the man held up his hand. "There is a small dwelling not far from the border gates. It used to belong to an older couple who passed away not too long ago. We can send you food weekly, as long as you treat anyone we send to you. Especially since we can't promise that anyone would go to you for healing."

"Thank you very much!" Sakura said bowing respectively.

"Yes. Yes. now go I have work to do." He gestured towards one of the guards that were in the room to, they then escorted her through the town and past the gates. It was not that far she kept telling herself, only a half an hr from the gates. There was a small home next to a cave and river. It was really quite quaint if she ignored how much work needed to be done to it. This was where the guard left her.

She pushed opened the door, and was pleased to see that though it was bare and untended to for some time it still had the necessary furnishings. She would need to take stock of everything and clean later so that she could have guests there were so many things she had to do, but there was something she had to do first.

Sakura walked out of the house and over to the cave. It went fairly deep but it was small and cool, this was probably where they stored their food, she thought when she reached the end. She placed her hand on the cold surface. "Yes this will do." she whispered. Then Sakura made a chakra scalpel with one hand and cupped the other as she made a nice sized slice in the center. She watched as the blood pooled in her hand. She took her finger and began writing Names on the wall.

"I will never forget you," she promised, as she wrote all the names of her friends and family on the cave walls. "Your dreams, your hopes, everything you loved, and hated." she could feel tears begin to roll down her face as she began to accept the facts of where she was, "All of the good times, and the hell that we all walked through together." She paused after Naruto's name feeling regret pool inside of her, and the same sickening sadness she thought she had let go of months ago came back as she wrote Sasuke's name beneath his. Naruto would have wanted that she told herself, through the pain, the blood pooling in her hand began spilling out onto the floor of the cave but she kept on writing. Then when her tears began to dry and the giant cave wall seemed to be covered she healed her hand. Feeling light headed she knelt to the ground. "I don't know where you are anymore, but I'm still here guys. Kaguya spared me, she sent me back for what reason I do not fully remember," she placed her hand on the drying names on the wall, "But I will make her regret that decision, because she has given me time. Time to grow stronger than I ever was. Time to rewrite the mistakes of our past. Time to create a place where all of you can live, not just survive, but truly live." she placed her bloody finger over her seal on her forehead, "I promise will atone for what I did. So that when it is my time and I do finally cross over to wherever you all are I can leave my guilt in this world and look you in the eye."

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**Ok so chapter 2 here it is**

**Please comment below and let me know what you think!**

**I know it might feel a bit rushed, as this is an in-between project that I am doing, so I hope you will forgive the mistakes :)**

**I have never done a Shout out before but I thought I might try it!**

**So...**

**Shout out to my first 5 comments **

**Suzululu4moe**

thank you for writing the first comment on this story! And though I know as of Rn she will not end up with Hashirama, but tats all, I will have a poll for pairings latter down the line

**CherryTheRose**

love the use of Holly molly and I hope that I keep deserving it!

**Cruisegirl86**

I know I am still in the beginning but I'm happy you enjoyed it nonetheless!

**kayna96**

thanks - I hope I keep her kind of consistent - we shall see!

**lyndyloowho**

Well I updated faster than I usually do, I think because it is a side project and has less stress than some of my other stories, hope this chapter lived up to the hype


	3. Chapter 3

**OK here we are, back at it again with Chapter 3**

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**Interruptions**

It was midday by the time the Uchiha party reached their destination. They were 7 strong and had traveled for 3 weeks to reach the area, over some mountains in the south end of the fire nation and avoiding other stray groups that had been feathered around the area. All to reach an area that to their surprise seemed very unimpressive. "We will make camp here." one of them ordered resting his back on one of the trees and lowering his pack. The rest followed suit unpacking and getting a perimeter secured so that they could conduct their investigation safely in case any of the other clans sensed what they had a few weeks prior.

They had been the closest clan to the Great Chakra burst, or the disturbance as some were calling it, but it had taken many meetings about whether it was safe, in the middle of the war to spare a large unit, to investigate such matters. In the end, the decision was made that whatever was there, be it an asset or a threat, they were to find out discreetly and before any of the other clans did. They were the Uchiha and apart from being one of the strongest clans they were often one of the most highly regarded and feared, having an overpowering weapon on their side would certainly tip the scales in their favor for winning the never-ending war. After they set up their perimeter they moved towards the mysteriously gone signature that had shocked their community, the signature had disappeared a few days ago but they were able to find an area that was slightly irregular compared to the others.

Izuna moved forward to the unusual area, he reached his hand out, slowly waving it through the air he turned back to the group, "This is clearly some sort of highly advanced genjutsu paired with seals I have never seen. I.. I really have never seen anything like this." a few of the others came up next to him activating their sharingan as they inspected the area. They were able to tell it was some sort of barrier built by layers and layers of seals and genjutsus. This technique, to a much lesser extent, had been done before and they began debating ways to undo it. The thing standing in their way was the fact that none of them were familiar with any of the barriers in front of them. They were very clearly and strongly done, but they could not recognize where or how to break it. Izuna walked forward more into it through the area he could sense something around him there were areas that looked the same almost like copycat bushed and tree patterns and he could see some small errors as he walked back towards the camp where he meet his brother at the edge.

"What have you been able to tell brother?" Madara asked as Izuna stood by his side, "You are one of the best in our Clan save our father and late brother when it comes to genjutsu." Madara stared intently with his onyx eyes.

"There are weak spots, but brother, I do not recognize any of these seals. I can sense and feel how they are working but they are so much more advanced…" Izuna was pacing in thought, but his eyes had a shine to them at the prospect of perhaps uncovering some advanced techniques. Finally taking a breath he continued, muttering, "I don't think that they are going to be a lot of help" he joked nodding towards the others.

"Well father couldn't really send the best for something that he wasn't even sure would pay off." Madara looked off in the distance, scanning the area. He began to wonder why his father sent them out here, "I don't know if anyone could even breakthrough, our best bet would be to find a weak spot and enter the genjutsu, investigate from the inside."

"Is that even possible!?" Izuna looked up pulled from his thoughts at his brothers suggestion.

"You tell me" he smiled down at his no longer too little brother, knowing that his gears would be turning and turning thinking of how to try it. They were both prodigies, it is easier to advance quickly when you are on the battlefield at nine. Madara had a natural talent for fighting. He had not yet received his sharingan, but he already had a reputation on the battlefield as a natural born killer. His brother though, he had to watch out for, he was the smart one. They were both talented, no one disputed that, but it was always Izuna who caught on faster even if Madara was more powerful. That was probably why they worked well together. "Hopefully we can work this out before the Senju get here." Madara said entering the camp, everyone's attention drawn to the two prize children of the head house."They were further out than we were but they have a strong sense for these types of things." Madara said, informing the team of his thoughts.

Izuna sat on a nearby rock, deep in thought. As the others ate deliberating other possible solutions, Madara would occasionally look to his brother. Still sitting, occasionally looking up if he heard a theory or idea that he might use or apply, but usually he just stayed in his own head occasionally drawing a few symbols on the ground. Madara was looking at the camp that they had made checking to see if they had set a good perimeter. If the senju came there would be a fight, and he had no way of knowing what size of force they would bring. They would be lucky if they were a few days ahead of the Senju clan, but if some of the other clans had set out before they had like the Huga or any other. They could be facing something larger than just a little fight. It would be a good sized battle depending on how many people were sent on each side.

If only the elders had not taken so long for their decision. It was constantly frustrating to be pulled back and forth between opinions and ideas with no action. They wanted to plan everything and they had the right simply because they were elders. They deserved his respect for surviving so long in this war, but they don't know the same battlefield anymore. They have the same views that they have had since they were young. That is just how the uchiha are, stuck in the past, but he was the one that was going to stop this war. He was going to break this cycle of war that keeps the war going. He was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of Izunas musings.

"It would leave us very vulnerable." Izuna muttered to himself.

"How vulnerable?" Madara asked immediately shifting thoughts.

"Well we would need all of the sharingan users who have experience with seals here to hold each of the genjutsuses open. Then one person could possibly force their way through the rest of the way." Izuna brought his thumb to his mouth biting the nail as he continued, "We might be able to spare one as a look out, but I do not think we could send anyone far for a fight. I would need two or even all of us to hold onto it for long enough for someone to scout the area."

"Someone would have to use brute force to pound their way through the last few layers with strong bursts of chakra…. Into something completely unknown…. Mostlikly giving our location away….. And with a few guards . Only a fool would say yes to this brother."Madara stated as he looked down with a cocked eyebrow.

"Yes, a fool indeed." Izuna said a smile creeping on his face as he looked back at his brother, earning more of a frown from Madara, "Stop that." Madara barked

"Stop what brother?" Izuna asked trying to pull his grin back in

"You know exactly what I mean, I may be your brother. And you may have gotten your sharingan before me, but none of that changes the fact that you should not act this way when on a mission. There are lives at stake." Madara loved his little brother and in fact enjoyed the teasing and fighting the two often did. He wanted to live in a world where people like his brother did not have to go on the battlefield and kill what precious kindness they had left, but they were not in that world yet. And as the children of the Uchiha clan head they had an image to maintain, especially in front of other clan members. As much as he hated when he had to say it, he knew that they both needed reminding sometimes, "What would father say."

With that a cold wind went through them both. Izuna was no longer trying to hide his grin, it was gone. "Way to kill the fun Madara."

"We are about to do something dangerous Izuna, we could be going into battle soon and we can not afford to lose anyone."

"Yeah, but to be fair when are we not in those situations?"

"That does not mean that we should put ourselves into unnecessarily uncompromised positions." Madara said looking off into the woods

"To be honest the longer we wait to do this the longer the likelihood others might get here. By doing this sooner rather than later we get in and out faster so that the chances of getting into a battle while compromised are lower too."

"Ok"

"And on top of that, if we are able to get anything valuable in there we might just be able to defend against the people who would attack us. Oh, oh wait ok then you are agreeing?"

"Izuna, I disagree and agree on a lot of those points. Mostly because we don't know the complexity that most of these contain. But whatever we do I agree we need to try something soon. "

The two sat in silence for a moment before looking at each other and nodded. Standing as they moved towards the camp Madara addressed the other team members, "only one shift of rest tonight. Two groups split between those with knowledge of seals and those without. Then those sleeping now will guard, Isuna and those with knowledge of seals who will sleep second and will join him after the rest to make a hole in the barrier, while I enter."

In a few moments as they had split into one group of three and another group of four, and after their short rest Izuna instructed the three other members what to do. It took longer than they had expected, almost three hours to break through the initial layers. Then it happened there grew a sliver of light erupting from seemingly nowhere.

Madara looked to his brother," Izuna had sweat trickling down his face which was clenched with frustration, "How long can you hold it brother?"

"4 minutes", Izuna huffed out, nodding Madara moved quickly into the space pushing as much chakra out as he could he bursted through a layer then feeling some resistance like chakra strings surrounding him he pushed more and more of his overwhelming chakra out bursting through into a blinding bright light. He fell to the ground breathing heavily from the chakra exhaustion. But that sensation and pain did not last long after a few moments he felt a warm green glow envelop him and he rolled over staring up at the unbelievable canopy of cherry blossoms, in moments he felt is energy being replenished and he could stand again. As he got up, he looked at the area where he had fallen. It had turned brown and black in stark contrast to the bright green of the mossy soft grass that covered the floors.

Everywhere he looked all he could see were cherry blossom trees, the sky above was a bright blue and there was a soft refreshing wind that flew the blossoms in beautiful patterns caressing his face like the softest of silk. Every breath was intoxicating, he had never felt so calm. How long had it been? He blinked a few times looking back down to where he had been the dead grass bringing him back to where he needed to be. He jumped from tree to tree fighting the overwhelming feeling to sink into the ground and let the chakra envelop him. There was chakra everywhere, in the trees, grass, and wind. There was some chakra in every living thing, but it was all the same here, healing and warm pulling him further and further in. He could sense no other chakra signatures, and as much as he wanted to let himself succumb to it he knew it was time to head back to the seal. There was something off. Like being surrounded in complete darkness. It was all-consuming but at the same time missing something. If there were any other ninja in here he could not sense them, but they could just as easily have blended into the trees if they had the exact same chakra signature as everything else in this forest of pink.

He turned back to the spot where he entered and he could see a dark silver slowly closing, how long had they been holding it? He didn't have much time but he felt he had the chakra back and using as much as he could, he forced his way back barreling and tumbling into the ground. His skin was burning, as though it was on fire. His lungs felt dry as though the air had lost any moisture, screaming for whatever he had been breathing before. Then he heard the screams his eyes dry and out of focused looked up as he saw his brother in front of him holding two kunai as an enemy nin was in front of him attacking.

Everything in Madara's body protested him moving, but he had gotten through worse in the past and bolted up grabbing a weapon on his belt he jumped to Izuna's side-swiping at the enemy ninja.

"They outnumber us 2 to 1 brother," Izuna said breathlessly, his Sharingan brightly contrasting his tired appearance.

"Hn" Madara huffed out, "Then we should be just fine." he smirked digging his feet into the ground bolding forward killing the ninja in front of them in two strikes. They had their faces covered but he could at least see they were not the Hyugas and for that he was thankful. He could feel his legs go numb but that was probably due to the chakra exhaustion which ignored pushing forward.

He heard the clang of kuni being deflected as he looked back to see three of his men fighting against a barrage of kuni. Moving to help them he analyzed the rest of the field quickly. He could not see any of the enemy nin using their kekkei genkai and though they were not as good as his men he could see that things were not looking very good. His men were tired and weining fast, and he wasn't sure how long he could go for either. He got what information he could and there was no reason to hold their position any longer, so he moved to flank the nin bargaining his men with kuni as he made the signal for a retreat. Attacking the enemy nin from behind he saw there were three, he took out two but there was a third that escaped his attack. Flying back making signs for what looked like a water jutsu he began making signs for a firewall beating the ninja in front of him a wall burst in front of himself and along the way to his brother killing the two other enemies that Izuna had been in combat with. Then things began to blur and he could feel the cold sting of rain on his skin as the firewall danced in front of him. He could hear in the distance his brother call out to him.

His chakra was low, dangerously low and there was little he could do other than to try and stay conscious as the world began to go numb around him. As everything began to fade he could feel arms pull around his numb frame. And as darkness clouded his vision sakura petals floated in front of him.

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Preview

"Well it is raining sideways now," Sakura said plainly looking out her window at the horrible storm that had taken over the whole area for a few days. She was in a numb mind space, she had done all the repairs to the house, had all of her medical necessities labeled sorted and stored away and cleaned the whole place at least twice. There was nothing to do but watch the rainfall, and she had been doing this for at least an hour.

Stretching her small arms in the air she cracked her neck, and after looking around at the room again confirming there was in fact absolutely nothing to do, she relaxed back into a new position by the window. "Oh," she said in a dull voice, "Now the rain is going sideways in a new direction…."

Her head bobbed as the waves of rain shifted and lulled her into a half-sleep. She was not sure how long she had been asleep. The rain made the day grey at all hours and any shift in the light darkened everything. It must have been close to 7, no 8 at night but it was hard to tell without any clock in the room, really it could have been any time between 8 or 10.

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**OK So here it is what did you think**

** I added that bit at the bottom when I realized Sakura was not in the chapter at all so I hope you enjoyed that little blurb on her**

**I'm Looking forward to the meet and greet for the next chapter hopefully it doesn't take as long as this one did**


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright well, it has been a while since the last upload, but I just sometimes feel like I write myself into a hole. But here is the next chapter, and I hope you like it. **

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**New Patience and New P****atients**

As the rain came down, Sakura thought back to the very limited interactions she had had so far with the townspeople. There had been only a few people the town had sent to her. She could understand why. The fact that she was a child again was a blessing and a curse. The people in the area had pity for her, but they also only saw her as what she appeared to be, a child, not a medical professional. There were a few older women who came to see her with chronic 'back problems'. She could see right through that, nosy townsfolk were all the same no matter the time period.

Even though they came out of curiosity they left amazed when she had fixed a few of their actual pains from their back to feet and even a few arthritic hands she had treated. She knew that it would take time for the town to get accustomed to her presence, she just had such a fast start to everything she did not expect it to plateau for so long. Three months. Three months she had been here and she had treated at most five patience. Even when she was an apprentice she treated more people than that in a day. It was a bit humiliating and very humbling.

She had used this time to try and get back some of what she had lost in terms of muscle mass, it was difficult with a child's body. She trained hard then healed and repaired with her chakra it made the process much faster, but there was only so much she could do safely, after all, she was still physically a child and going too far could do some long term damage on her body, she remembered how hard Lee used to push himself and she remembered how he almost went too far in the chunin exams. So she got herself to peak condition for her body with a few chakra enhancements then focused on meditating. She tested her chakra coils and reserves testing and filling them as best she could, those she could push, and she did, hard and every day.

In her spare time she tried to remember as much of this time period as possible. There were a lot of little things that she remembered, but she was by no means a scholar of ninja history. She had been working so hard in the last few years that most of the knowledge she didn't think she needed, was replaced with duties she felt were a little more important for fighting a God-like Kaguya, and organizing vastly different tribes of ninja for survival.

She remembered the terrain of the time, and vaguely who was supposed to be fighting who, but she did not remember the animosity that civilians harbord towards any type of ninja. This was not to say that she did not understand where their anger was coming from, this was before a time where ninja villages worked with civilians. And right now civilians viewed ninja as more or fewer monsters that they occasionally traded with. They were unpredictable and dangerous. If a town happened to be in the middle of a battle between tribes it simply added a new terrain and inevitable civilian casualties.

In short, she was not trusted, and she had to prove that she actually cared for the villagers. A task that could take years unless ninja did attack in which case they would need her. Not that she was asking for something as terrible as that to happen, but well staring at the rain and meditating for chakra gathering was messing with her head.

Sakura was not much of a pet person, between shifts at the hospital, governing, taking care of Naruto, his trouble making friends, and missions took up a large chunk of her time. Though, even before life started moving too fast to keep track, she could not ever remember having a pet when she was living with her parents.

"Maybe I should get a cat," she thought aloud to herself. She envisioned a beautiful fluffy white cat with green eyes, that were so like hers yet so different. Then looking around dismissed the idea again remembering the hazards of pet hair and dander, it could contaminate things or bring dead animals in. She shook her head, she wouldn't have even wanted a cat anyway, never get an animal whose personality is too similar to yours. She looked around the room and huffed, she was tired from nothing and felt so frustrated by it.

On days that were nice she had been able to start a medical garden, it was doing well, but she was not sure how long most of it was going to last with weather like this. She had started it a month or so after arriving and receiving some outdated, but much appreciated, supplies from the village. It was not until this month that she had really seen some nice growth, she even had given some to the guards that brought her supplies and such. They finally began asking her a few questions here and there about the garden, and the house, how Sakura was holding up all alone, only surface level but at that point, she was just happy they were even attempting conversation. Then one day they asked her about the cherry tree. It was a brighter day and they had just had a conversation about how there was an impending storm and a new caravan of traders were going to come through the town if I was in need of anything.

"What cherry tree?" Sakura had replied, completely confused, one of the men pointed atop the roof of her home that had been connected to a stone wall that connected a part of the mossy roof to the cave. Because of how the roof and area above the cave were angled, combined with Sakura's short stature she had not noticed anything odd in that area.

She turned to the men, "Would you mind if I hop up that tree for a bit?" She asked sweetly not wanting to startle her guests/guards. With their curt nod, she moved around the tree and ran up. She wanted to hide as much as she could do from the villagers so as not to make them more fearful of her. As she got to a higher branch she looped around and saw what they had been talking about. There was a small cherry tree sprouting from what looked like moss and stone. "Well that is certainly not normal," she mumbled to herself before climbing back down the tree.

"I have no idea how that got there." she said in a sweet yet confused voice to the two men.

"Right then." one of them said, fully not believing a word Sakura said. The other gave him a look as though to say 'c'mon man you don't need to be such an ass'. Though his tight smile to her was not the most welcoming either as they said their goodbyes and left with the shortlist of supplies she needed.

But Sakura was truly confused as to how that tree got there. It was in full bloom too, and completely out of season. All of that on top of the fact that it was sprouting out of rocks and moss, nothing about it added up. No wonder they didn't believe her.

It must have something to do with her, she just didn't know what. After the guards were completely gone she jumped up to the ridge, and walked up to the small sprouting tree. It had the same signature of her chakra in it, the same as the place where she had woken up.

"But why," She said to herself bringing her thoughts back to the present looking out at the rain. Why cherry trees? She had pink hair and her name was Sakura, but other than that she just couldn't figure out why. She had never had the ability to control plants or had wood release. And every time she tried to think back to Kaguya she began to have a splitting headache, which made her think that it must have something to do with that, but she just could not remember what.

Sakura leaned her head against the glass it was cool against her forehead. Then she noticed it. Immediately her mind broke from the past, and back to the present. A chakra signature was moving in her direction, no she thought again honing in on it. There were two signatures, one was just very weak. She jumped from the window no longer as tired as she had been feeling. She could feel her blood pumping in her veins with excitement as she went to go grab a nice long blade to hold behind her back. She was going to assume they were coming here for treatment as one of the signatures was so low. But Sakura was not going to take the chance of being unprepared, as she waited quietly by the door as the signatures got closer and closer.

* * *

Izuna was at the end of his rope. His brother was on his back as he pushed himself from limb to limb. There had been a town near the battle and it was the only one close enough that might have a medic of any kind. But when he had gotten there, the bastards had turned him away. He was about to level the place with what little chakra he had left, until they told him that there was another medic that was living a little ways from the town, who was supposed to take anyone they sent. Before listening for a second more to the terrified villagers he headed in the direction they had pointed out.

It did not take long to find the small house with a warm glow from within in the pouring rain, it was a beacon to him. And he began banging on the door. "I need the Healer who lives here by brother needs immediate help!" He yelled

Then the door swung open, and in front of him was a little girl with long pink hair. "Come in quickly," she ordered calmly.

"Where is the Healer?" Izuna asked coming in watching the girl move quickly around the room turning on a pot of water and grabbing linens from a cupboard

"Put him on the bed over there." she said, ignoring the question, and tying her hair up into a bun.

Sakura was already in her grove the moment that the boy asked for help. From the state of blood on the boy's clothes she knew she would need to do diagnostics quickly. When the boy just kept looking at her she let out an exacerbates huff, "I am the medical professional here and I said put the kid on the table."

Izuna was a bit shocked to say the least, Izina and his brother had both reached their teenage years and from both of the reputations and experience neither had been referred to as kids in a long time. Izuna just stared half out of exhaustion half out of confusion. The girl in front of him could not have been more than 11 or 12 there was no way that she was older than them, but the way she moved around showed a certainty that confused him. He felt the pit in his stomach grow even bigger a little girl, that was the only hope for keeping his brother alive.

So he took a hard gulp and tried to force the lead in his throat down as he rested his brother's body on the table the girl had prepared. "Are you sure you can do this" he croaked out, his voice sounded sad and desperate, as the girl leaned over his brother.

Creating a chakra scalpel she carefully sliced down the middle of his armor, peeling it off so that she could more clearly see any damage. Immediately she started probing her chakra into him analyzing the diagnostics of his chakra and any physical harm, "Yes. and while I'm doing this" she said, her hands glowing green and running over bruises and some clearly broken bones, "You can strip him. Other than these ribs and some very sever chakra depletion are there any other wounds I should be aware of?" Sakura's asked focused on the task at hand.

"No… wait yes, he got a burn on his left side" Izuna moved over to the side of the table motioning to the area.

The fabric had melted into his skin and with one hand sakura reached out and pulled a piece of the melted fabric from the surrounding area. Feeling his internals were not dire, and that the burn though bad was only surface deep she looked up at the boy in front of her, and for a brief moment, she came out of her work trance as though she had been slapped in the face. He looked like Sauske, not closely but he had similar handsome features behind all the blood and dirt. Pale skin, onyx eyes, and blue-black hair. 'Shit' she thought internally, they are Uchiha.

"He is going to be fine," she stated trying to calm the boy down, he looked like he was going to be sick, "Look over there" she said, nodding to a cupboard on the far left side. "Bluebottle with small black pills, grab those bring them to me and soak some of the towels over there in the cold, and I mean cold water."

Izuna did what she said, he put the blue bottle down next to her as he began to soak the towels in a bin of cold water. "So his life is not in danger then?" Izuna asked a little more hopefully

"Yes, while he is here getting medical attention his life is in no danger, now hand me that cloth."

Izuna did as he was told and Sakura wrapped the cloth over the wound, she reached over and placed Izuna's hand over the cloth, "Hold this in place firmly but don't push too hard" she instructed

She used this time to wipe down and sanitize the rest of the nins upper body, healing as she went while Izuna looked on in amazement. Her control was impeccable as it had been before. In awe, he stared as she mended bone and flesh back together, healing bruises, and closing scrapes.

"Ok now remove your hands" she said taking the towel from him slowly peeling it off, dabbing the area to get a better look at the wound, "Ok so I am going to pick some of these pieces of clothing from the wound before I start healing it, and hopefully he doesn't wake up. His chakra levels are so low that I think they will keep him knocked out, but if he does you have to hold him down. Can you do that for me?" Sakura asked looking up at the young boy.

"Yeah, I can hold him down." Izuna said looking over his brother

And with a nod, Sakura moved over to her patient's side taking some tweezers she began probing around and pulling and cutting out some of the melted and nonflesh material from the wound. "So, how did you two end up like this," Sakura asked trying to start conversation distract the obviously shock riddled boy.

"That is confidential." Izuna said narrowing his eyes

"Ok, ok, I'm not trying to fish for information I just wanted you to not be so hyper-focused on your brother and pass out on me, he is going to be fine. I'm sure you can see he is already looking much better."

Izuna looked over his brother, who indeed was no longer as pale as he had been, all scrapes and wounds had been closed and healed up, and his breathing seemed to be back to normal. In fact he would even go as far to say that there were some scars that were now missing from his brother's body. He was in shock. All he could do was watch as the pink-headed girl was focused on the burn wound, and not try and not pass out from exhaustion.

Izuna had been hailed as a prodigy, so had his brother, but this kind of healing at her age, he had never heard of anything like this? Who was she? "What clan are you from that has someone like you, working for a civilian village?" Izuna asked, "And for you to help anyone, any hurt ninja that came by the town. Just who are you?"

"That is confidential." Sakura started keeping her eyes on the burn, still pulling pieces of cloth and metal from it. The air went stale for a few moments, "sorry," she said with a huff, "I was never very good at lightening the mood, humor is not really my strong suit. That's why I always had that baka around… nevermind" Sakura looked up at the boy, briefly making eye contact before nodding over to the blue bottle he had grabbed for her before.

"Take one of those, I don't need you passing out if your fellow here wakes up on me." Izuna did what she told taking the rough brown pill from the container. He examined it looking at the girl and then back at the pill he popped it into his mouth, he had trusted her this far and she hadn't shown any signs of aggression. Immediately he self a warmth in his chakra streams, he had a bit more energy and he felt slightly more awake. He looked back over to the pink-haired girl, what the hell was going on. Before he could ask her anything she started talking again.

"It is not actually confidential. I am not part of any clan really, not like what you are probably thinking of at least. We were, at heart, healers, most of the people in our family were strong but pacifists." she said mindlessly as this was a story that she had been practicing over and over in her head. Making sure it aligned with what she had told anyone else she had met along the way. Sakura was not an actress or one who was able to easily shield her emotions. But it wasn't hard to pretend like her whole clan had died, because they had. All of her family and friends, her whole life was gone so in a way she was telling the truth. "None of us wanted the war, so we did everything we could to stay out of it, helping villages and just normal civilians when we could. Most of is honed our crafts for the sake of being the best we could be. We all had very close bonds to each other, at times some bonds seemed stronger than life itself."

"So then why did they leave you here alone, in this village?" Izuna asked

Sakuras face twitched a bit, as she pulled the last piece of debris from the wound of the boy in front of her. She would have thought a ninja would have been able to connect point A to point B. "They didn't" she mumbled relaxing her shoulders, she looked down at her handy work, a clean open wound she brought her hands up focusing on now on weaving the flesh back together. "I was sick, but because of that illness, I survived. They died, all of them, it is a short story, but they did not _leave _me."

"I am sorry to hear that," Izuna said, baka he thought, he should have known better, but how was he supposed to know. This was just all so odd.

"Don't worry about it, most ninja have known great loss during these wars. We saw a lot of devastation in the wake of many of even your clan's battles, Uchiha right?" Sakura asked

"Yeah," Izuna said, it was fairly easy if someone was part of a clan to be able to identify a few of the major clans, Uchiha and the Hyuga being the most Identifiable by their features.

"Figured, hard to ignore physical features like these, ok just about done." Izuna had been observing as the wound had been slowly closing, again as though there was no wound there to begin with. He shook his head as he looked down at his brother.

"I am truly thankful that you were here, I am sorry that I initially doubted your abilities. I and the whole Uchiha clan owe you a huge debt"

"No I can understand that this is an odd situation, but let's not get too caught up in what is owed or not. I agreed to heal anyone the village sent my way. I did what any healer worth anything could do. Now let's set your brother up over here, so that both of you can get some rest."

* * *

Madara was pulled from his dream slowly. He was back in the warm forest of sakura trees, resting. There was no clan to protect, no war to fight in, and no traditions he had to follow. He wanted to stay there forever in the memory of its warmth. Slowly the vision faded and so did the warmth. He was still warm but it wasn't the same, he could feel the weight of the blankets and the thumping of his blood through his veins.

Then he began to open his eyes. Things were a bit blurry at first. But he blinked a few times and quickly emerald eyes came into focus, a beautiful girl with a heart-shaped face and pink hair hovered over top of him. For a moment he wasn't able to think straight as he looked at her. His mind went blank as he stared into her eyes, they were so bright, and her pale skin and pink hair gave her an out of focus glow, then she moved away and broke Madara from his daze.

Where was he, he tried to sit up but the girl came back over, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." she said bringing a vile with her. "You are healed but your body still needs time to adjust. Here take this." She emptied out a few brown balls into his hand. He looked down at them, then back at her. What was going on?

"Oh sorry," she said scratching the back of her hear, "You are safe this is not some enemy camp or whatever, your brother is just outside doing some chores. He refused to not repay me, even though I was just doing my job. Something about Uchiha honor." The girl was rambling a bit, she looked cute as she fumbled explaining things to him, there was a slight blush on her cheeks giving her face a more flushed look. "I'm sorry I just didn't expect you to wake up for a few more hours, let me go just get your brother." And with that, she was out of the door.

Madara looked back down at the pills, rolling them around in his hand he looked back up now taking in his surroundings. The place was clean and open for such a small room. There seemed to be tables set up with a few beds with clean sheets laid out on them. The air had a slight scent of one of the healing tents he could remember being in the Uchiha compound but the sent was not so intrusive or as pungent.

Then the door slammed open. "Nisan!" Izuna shouted running over to his brother taking him into a big hug.

"What did I just say about handling him!" he could hear the same voice from before this time more annoyed than the shy sputtering.

"I'm sorry Sakura, I just got so excited to see him up and about! I really thought I lost you there for a bit brother." Izuna said looking over Madara, "How are you feeling."

"Confused." Madara stared blankly, he looked back at the girl with the pink hair, it seemed she had gone about doing things around the room moving a basin of dirty rags to the sink and putting a few viles away. "Who is that? And why are we here, and not with the rest of the team."

"We got separated. Do you remember the attack?" Izuna asked a mix of relieved and worried.

"No not much after…" he looked around Izuna again, at the girl, he now knew as Sakura, still putting viles away, "..after I got back to the team. There was a battle I remember fighting just not really what I did. Then Black." Then I was dreaming of being back in that place again, but he didn't want to talk about that near this unknown person, who was clearly not Uchiha, yet also a ninja of some kind. He could barely sense her chakra, she either had very little, or a lot of chakra control, and something in his instincts told him it was the later.

"You pulled a big, and stupid stunt. Sent up a big firewall separated the battle and caused enough distraction for us to get away, unfortunately, the team went the other direction back to the village, but you were too hurt, you would not have made it back. So I took you to the nearest village to try and find a healer, but they wouldn't help so they sent me here and that is when I met Sakura." He nodded in her direction.

The girl turned in their direction giving a nodded back at them, "Nice to, officially, meet you. I'll need to give you a check-up after you have taken those pills to make sure your chakra channels are fine."

Madara looked back down at the pills slowly taking in the information, he looked back up to his brother who nodded in approval, and he popped the pills in his mouth. He felt a warmth bloom in his chest and energy run through his chakra channels. "See not so bad right?" Izuna said, "She made me take a few earlier and I'm feeling a lot better."

"They don't make up for proper rest though, which you need." Sakura said coming over to the two. "Can you lean forward for a moment while I do a quick checkup."

"So then I am to assume it was you that saved me from the brink?" Madara said in a skeptical voice.

"Yes." Izuna and Sakura said at the same time. Sakura gave Madara a look, before moving around Izuna to get to Madaras back, "Now like I said lean up a bit more."

He did as he was told from the girl, Izuna seemed to trust her well enough, and if she didn't give off an aura that put set his usual nerves off. On the contrary, something about her calmed him down. He felt her cool hands on his back, and his eyes widened with realization as he could feel some of her chakra bleed into him, soothing and warm yet probing.

Her chakra signature felt like the forest. He turned his head to look at Izuna. Izuna seemed fascinated by watching her. She seemed to have charmed his brother somehow, though he had to admit it was not a difficult task. Izuna was one of the kindest and more friendly members of the Uchiha family that he knew. As he could feel the warmth retreat he felt dull ache where her chakra had been probing and massaging his chakra coils and spreading through his muscles.

"Ok that should be it," Sakura said getting up and taking a step back, "You should still take it easy for a couple of days. I don't know when you need to head back, but you should have plenty of breaks along the way. I know it is easy to think you can just push a little further sometimes, but this is not one of those times. Your chakra coils are healing but they need rest, push them too far and you might cause more damage.

" hn." Madara said eyes lingering on the Sakura before turning back to his brother. "Is there a place we can talk." his eyes shifting to his brother.

"Oh, just go outside." Sakura said, "I won't bother you out there. I have plenty to clean up anyway."

With that Madara began moving to get up. He did not like the feeling of being in a place where he had no control and this, this was something new. This girl might be connected with the anomaly that they found and he wasn't sure how to approach the situation. His brother helped him up, physically he was sore, but not in any pain. Then they made their way outside.

Madara blinked a few times the sun was bright outside and everything was glistening and wet from the rain from the night before.

Madara looked around, the air here felt normal and so did the ground and the pain, so he could determine that he was no longer in the strange place from his dreams. He turned to his brother, "What do you know about this kunoichi?"

"Not much," Izuna said, "I only really know what she told me, she ended up here after her clan died. She is supposed to help anyone the village turns away. And she is an unbelievable healer, you were about to bleed out and she was able to close your wounds like they were paper cuts. It was really amazing to watch!"

"It seemed you have grown fond of her." Madara stated

A light pink dusted his cheeks, "She is really... different, but more than that she saved your life. I took a watch for most of the night before she offered to stay watch. She said that we were her patients and that she would let us know if there was anything heading our way. Then I got up this morning and she was sitting in the same spot by the window keeping watch. I know she is not an Uchiha but she treated you so well and you are feeling ok and that is what is .." Izuna paused as he looked towards his brother. They had walked a ways from the little house and his eyes were transfixed on something above the hut on the rock face. He could see just the tops of what appeared to be some kind of pink blossoms. "What is that."

"If it is what I think it is then there is more to this girl than what she is telling us. You said she was different, I would agree with you on that. But you are often too trusting Izuna, there is something wrong with this place and there is something off with that girl. I don't know what it is but we need to let the clan know that we are alright first. Otherwise, who knows what they might do."

"You are right brother, I'll send a raven. I just wanted to wait till you woke up before I did anything."

"Next time just do it." Madara said sharply, "We can always send another. I understand wanting to gauge my condition first but you never know what those old cooks are thinking in the council or how father will react. Especially when we will have to delay our return."

"Delay our return?" Izuna repeated questioningly.

"Yes. There is something off here. Plus the girl said we needed to rest for a while before heading back."

"Is that what Sakura said?"

"She is not going to push patients out of the door, and this is the closest town to the anomaly we should look around and see if there is anything else here that might have been effected.

* * *

**Ok there it is! What do you think please let me know! I really hope that you comment, it really drives my writing even though it takes a long time for me to upload.**

**So please let me know what you are thinking!**

**I hope the story is making sense so far...**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ok so here we are. I'm so happy and surprised that this story is being received well so far!**

**got this chapter out quicker than usual, so I hope it doesn't suffer from feeling rushed**

**Thank you to everyone so far that is following along and commenting! it really keeps me wanting to post on this story!**

* * *

**Patients turn into Visitors turn into more Patients**

"So just how long are you planning on staying here?" Sakura said to Izuna

"Just a few days. If that's ok with you Sakura. We don't mean to impose and we will help out where we can so if you..." Izuna stopped as he was cut off

"If you don't push recently recovered patients out that would be great" Madara interjected from the side

"Keyword in that statement being recovered," Sakura mumbled, slightly irritated at the tone the kid was using with her. As though she was the one inconveniencing them while they were the ones asking for a favor. She had missed the lack of interaction, but to invite two Uchiha kids into her home? She looked back and forth between the two for a moment.

"I would have thought your village would have been eager to get you two home."

"Not so eager as to put ourselves in danger." Madara said blandly, "There has been more and more activity in the area recently, and there might be more in a few days. So, it would be better to fully recover and head out instead of having to constantly stop and put yourself in a compromising situation more that we would need to. Surely you can see that us heading back on our own, not at full strength could lead to problems on the road."

Sakura clicked her tongue. She could understand what he was saying, what she didn't understand is why he needed to use such a condescending tone. She looked back at Izuna. "Ok," she huffed out, his face brightened and Sakura's shoulders relaxed a bit. "But only for a few days. This is still a place of healing and not an inn." her tone sounding oddly strict along with her light voice. "So while here what do I call you two?"

Izuna looked at his brother and raised his shoulders, "You can call me Izu, if you'd like."

Madara shook his head disappointed over Izuna's name choice, but looking up he responded with his actual code name, "Karasu."

Izuna realizing his blunder opened his mouth and closed it a few times as though he wanted to correct his mistake but decided against it. Even though Skura was not Uchiha, she had helped them freely and been so nice to them, he wanted to share his whole name but only used an old nickname. Which, upon reflection, not a very good way to conceal one's name.

"Ok, then Izu and Karasu it is then." Sakura said slowly watching the odd reaction of the younger Uchiha. She was able to tell now that they were both moving around.

They must have been close in age but Karasu was a bit bigger, his eyes a bit harder and probing. Overall he was simply more of, from what Sakura could tell from her experience, what a typical Uchiha was supposed to be, or at least what she remembered Sasuke to be like. And it truly wasn't fair how attractiveness seemed to be a universal trait of the clan. Both boys, she had to admit, were attractive in their own right.

Izu had softer features and big Onix eyes that gave him a beautiful doe-eyed look, but it wasn't just that. He had intelligence behind his eyes as well, and he had demonstrated some of his ability to absorb and filter knowledge in their conversations while still being fairly innocent in how excited whenever she spoke about certain usable herbs or basic healing techniques.

Didn't change the fact that she saw them as no more than children. They couldn't have been more than 13 and she had the mind of a woman in her 20's she really couldn't see them more than kids. But similar to her they had both been in a war, all of them had seen death that was clear, and both were guarded though each to different extents.

"Just don't mess with the villagers. I am here to serve them since they have agreed to take care of me for the time being. And I don't need two Uchiha kids messing up what I have got here." Sakura said folding her arms and making a point to look at Madara, who immediately huffed and looked away out the window.

"We just need to do some research in the area, we shouldn't bother anyone," Izu said

"You do know that just your presence will bother them. I have seen it. People keep their children inside and stalls will close their doors to you. It is just a fact that right now ninja are generally 'scary bad guys' that are the reason for a lot of civilian death. And well I don't know what kind of reputation the Uchiha have with regular civilian villages, but my guess is not a lot of contact which means secretive which means even more suspicious."

"Well, we aren't small and weak like the Uzumaki or the Akimichi clans. We have no reason to trade much with civilians." Madara said slightly tilting his head to the side.

Sakura looked back at Izuna then back at Madara incredulously, "You have got to be kidding me." she said throwing her hands up in the air in frustration, "you are going to get me kicked out of this village!" and she walked off back to the kitchen mumbling loudly, "Do what you want, yeah it will be fine, they can't be this stupid, I swear if they get me kicked out of this village I might kill them."

During this Madara turned to Izuna, "So," he started, "Stick together and fan around the village before sweeping the village itself. Shouldn't take too long to sweep the outside, just keep your eyes and ears open for any enemy ninja that might have come. After should get the area surrounding area and the town done today if we keep the radius distance starting from this location." Sakura continued mumbling in the back, and Madara sighed in frustration, "you know we can hear you."

Sakura turned from what she was doing, "You know you are still in my house. It is a small house," she said waving her arm around the small makeshift kitchen, dining, living, and treatment room, "so I know you can hear me. I have been doing it so that you would take the hint go away. Maybe all the way back to your village."

"Hn" Madara let out

Izuna shook his head before looking up at sakura, holding his hand up he said, "Best behavior, we understand." it was a bit odd making such a promise to a girl younger than them, she almost acted like his mother the way she reprimanded them for behavior they hadn't even done yet.

"Right, well then also just so you know the cave is really the only part of the area that is off-limits. It's not dangerous or anything just personal space."

The two Uchiha nodded to her before making their way out of the little cottage. Then they turned to nod to each other before jumping off in the areas they had decided to start there search.

Sakura sat in a nearby chair tapping her fingers on the table. Maybe she wouldn't have even mentioned the cave. It wasn't like there was anything bad in there. She got back up and went to the cupboard to get some insense before walking out the door and towards the cave. The smell changed from the woods to that of a hollow cavern; the sent of damp rocks, moss, and incense hitting her nose, her chest tightened at the smell.

There was a little pile of dirt in front of the names and a few old sticks of incense stood in the center. She added another and lit it. She brought her hands together looking at all the names on the cavern wall her eyes lingering on that of one of her closest friends and dear teammate.

"Naruto," she whispered out, "What am I doing here? I have no idea. I thought there would be some sort of path or direction that would lead me to something, anything that would make this world better, but the days seem to be just piling up." Sakura let her hands fall to her sides, "you never wallowed, you could never stay still enough to wallow no matter what hardships you went through." Sakura clapped her hands to her face snapping herself out of the melancholy mood she was letting herself fall into, "So I won't stay still either. I will find some way to do this. I will for all of you."

Getting up she dusted off her knees and walked out of the cave. She looked around the area. Her cottage close and her garden was beginning to really grow now. She could help more people if they would come but right now no one knew she existed. Those villagers that did were either too scared or too skeptical of her talents to come to see her. And now she was going to have two Uchiha boys wandering around and asking questions.

Sakura stretched soaking up the sun that had followed the rainstorm. It had ended earlier that morning but it had left pools of water everywhere and everything outside was wet. After looking around she concluded that there again was nothing else for her to do that day. She had already cleaned or thrown away what she had used last night to heal the one called Karasu. A fake name for a rude person she thought idly. She should probably warn someone in the village about those two.

Then it hit her for what she could do that day. Go into town and warn someone about those two. Making her way down the path she headed in towards the town. It was not as big as she had remembered it being, but it was certainly bigger than just a normal small town. It was fairly easy to make out which one was the main building as it was about four stories tall, a good story overtop the rest of the other buildings in the town and it was the same building she was brought to when she first arrived.

She only had to sit for a few minutes before she was told she could go in. The doors opened and she could see in the familiar room. Stacks of paper still lined the walls and piles of it were on the desk in a manner that she was sure only made sense to the head of the village. After hopping off the chair she entered seeing the head of the village for the second time, his blue beard still as distracting as it was the first time. She idly wondered if he dyed it since the color was so bold before getting her thoughts in order as he addressed her.

"Sakura, it has been a long time since I last saw you. I have heard you have not ventured far into the town since you have arrived."

"I don't want to be the cause of unrest while I am here, I'd rather people get used to the idea of me being here first."

"That is very kind of you child though it may take a while before that happens."

"It seems so." sakura said remembering how long it had taken for just the guards to loosen up a bit around her.

"Now then what brings you to my offices today."

"Your healer in town refused to help two ninja boys that came by here in the storm. Then you sent them to me."

"Ah yes, I assume they made their way to you then."

"They did and I treated them without any issues."

The man raised one of his brows, "One of them seemed on death's door. And it only took a day to heal him?"

"I told you that I was good at what I did."

"I believe you said you were the best at what you did. It was a bold declaration from one so small." there was a slight pause in the air as sakura felt a tad embarrassed for how strongly she had come across in such a small frame. "But is that the reason you are here? The two Uchiha boys?"

"So you knew they were Uchiha?"

"It is hard to not recognize those from their clan, their raven hair and dark eyes are well known to the people in this area."

"I was wondering why your healer did not tend to them, they could have seen it as a slight against their clan had I not been here. One of them was very angry with your village even after."

"Our current healer is up in years, and he like many in this village, has lost family due to the fighting between the clans in the area, the Uchiha being one of those. I can not force him to do something he was not willing, and honestly unable to do."

"I understand, it is good that I was here then. Though there was one matter that I wanted you to be aware of." Sakura said hesitantly knowing the leader of the town would not be too happy with it.

"Well out with it then."

"Right," Sakura said, "So the two boys apparently have some business they are looking into in the surrounding area and they wanted to check out the town too. I warned them that they wouldn't be welcome and that they needed to be on their best behavior, but they seemed determined to check out the town."

The older man groaned pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. "The village is not going to like this."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"No no no just leave them be, we used to have connections with the Uzumaki clan but over the years the town has fallen on hard times and we can no longer afford them. So best to just stay out of their way and hope they leave soon without causing any trouble."

"Ok, they also said that there was more activity in the area than usual. So your guards might want to keep an extra eye out."

"I will keep that in mind. One of the guards will escort you back to your home. You know you are very meticulous for such a young girl."

"I'm very meticulous because I'm a good medic." The blue bearded leader chuckled curtly before turning back to his papers and with that, the little girl turned and walked out of the room.

As she exited the building one of the guards followed her down the road. The town was not very large, they were a small trading hub for the area but they were mostly a stop on the way to someplace larger. The streets nevertheless were bustling with merchants and locals all moving in different directions.

As she walked through the streets she could hear the haggling of merchants and the arguments of strangers. There were vendors that lined the streets and she could smell some of the food they were cooking. And it smelled much better than anything she could cook up. She was enjoying the sounds and smells when she saw a man pushing a cart with all his might on just one arm. His other arm looked as though it was bound tightly and was in a sling. Suddenly the bandaging came loose and his arm swung free garnering a yelp from the man.

Sakura quickly made her way through the crowd towards the man, her guard following closely behind. Walking up to the man she could tell he was trying to hold in the pain and tie his brace again unsuccessfully.

"Can I help you with that?" Sakura said now standing in front of the pained man.

"Move along little girl there is nothing you can do to help here."

"I'm a healer I can help you if you let me. It won't take very long."

The man looked at the little girl incredulously but the shooting pain in his arm brought made him bitter, he looked up to the guard behind her, "You there is she really a healer or just some rich merchant kid with a vivid imagination?"

The guard hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to respond, "She is a new doctor that lives on the outskirts of the town, but I should warn you that she-"

"Fine fine fine" the man said in pain, "If you are some sort of healer then help me put these bandages back in place."

Sakura moved forward to the man, "Oh I can do a lot more than that." Holding the man's arm in one hand the other began glowing green as she analyzed what kind of injury the man had. It seemed to be a fairly large fracture on the man's radial bone in his arm.

She could see the look of immediate discomfort on the man's face as he realized who she was. And a small crowd of people became onlookers as Sakura continued her work. As it was not a break or something that needed resetting Sakura went along closing up the fracture and healing the broken blood vessels around the area with relative ease.

After a few minutes she looked up satisfied with her work, "Ok then how does it feel now?"

The man still in a bit of shock held his arm up with some hesitation before glee filled his features. "It doesn't hurt anymore!" the man exclaimed and the crowd began whispering. "Its like your fixed my arm entirely!"

"I did, your arm should be as good as new now." Sakura said taking a few steps back from the man.

"I..I don't know what to say, little lady. I don't have much but there must be something I can give you in payment."

"I get all that I need from the village in return for healing people, so I am really just doing my job."

"No there must be something, I sell kitchen supplies there must be something you need here." he said gesturing back to his cart

Sakura's ears perked a bit, "Well if you insist, I would greatly appreciate a small mortar and pestle."

"Yes yes of course," quickly the man got up and went to the back of his cart. Sakura waited awkwardly as the small crowd lessened but continued whispering around her. Finally, the man came round again with a small mortar and pestle in his hands. "Thank you so much four your help, I have been struggling for almost two weeks with that injury and it has really hurt my ability to do business. So if there is anything you need just come find my stall down the street a bit and I promise to give you a good deal."

Sakura gave the man a small bow, "And thank you for this," she said holding up the small stone set, "Please feel free to come to visit if you ever injure yourself again."

"Yes, I certainly will. Thank you again little lady." and with a slight bow to her, he went back to pushing his cart and Skura continued on her way out of the village all along the way hearing whispers.

"Her hands glowed green and then..."

"I saw it with my own eyes."

"But she looks so young."

"His whole arm was broken..."

"Even though she is a.."

"It barely took a minute.."

Hopefully, this was the kind of attention she needed, maybe now people will actually come and be seen by her. As they left the edge of town Sakura stretched out her arms up and over before relaxing a bit and looking back to the guard. "Maybe now I can earn my keep." She said smiling.

"It was certainly an impressive display." the guard said, "I have never seen a bone heal right before my eyes."

Sakura giggles a bit to herself, "It is nice to finally be able to do something for a villager."

The guard seemed softened a bit by her child-like attitude shift, "I'm sure people will warm up to you eventually, just give them some time."

"Thank you," It was probably one of the nicer things the guard had ever said to her, and she thought there was nothing that could dampen her mood until she saw the bush. Sakura quickly looked around before glancing again at the bush then setting her eyes straight forward.

Ohhh great she thought to herself, turning back to the guard, "you know I can really make it on my own from here. Plus I think they are going to add some hours to the patrol soon, so I don't want you to waste your time just escorting me through the woods."

"Are you sure?"

"We are through the village and I think the chief probably wanted you there more for the civilian's sake rather than for mine. So it is really ok." she said putting on her best innocent kid face.

"Well," the guard unsuradly said, "If you are sure."

"I am." sakura said quickly with a smile, she needed to get this guard back to the town, now. She concentrated in the back of her mind sensing what chakra signatures were around her. Immediately she noticed two on either side of the trail they were on, and then two more further back in the woods. She was slightly upset with herself that she hadn't noticed them sooner.

The guard turned to go back, sakura waving a slight goodbye, "Have a nice day!"

The guard awkwardly waved back to her "you as well." before disappearing down the path back towards the village.

Sakura returned to the path on alert. Her senses sharpened and she began coursing chakra through her as she could sense the four closing in on her as she neared her cottage. She kicked her self for not noticing it sooner. The Uchiha boys told her there was more activity in the area, and it took such an obvious clue for her to take notice. It had heavily rained the night before, and everything in the woods was damp or had some evidence of the storm that had roared through, except that bush. A bone dry bush, it looked plain unnatural in the woods she was surprised the guard hadn't noticed it.

Then they moved in. First it was the two closest to her, quickly they made their way towards her. Sakura didn't have any weapons on her and she cursed as she thought of the few senbon in the house or a few of the knives that would have come in handy, but judging from their chakra signatures she surmised it wouldn't be too much of a problem. Non-lethal force should be enough she decided.

Then one of them dropped their genjutsu and attacked with a sword in hand. Sakura created a chakra scalpel quickly defending from the attack with one hand while using the other to punch her attacker in the stomach. The chakra filled punch sent the ninja flying into a tree and she heard a distinct crack as he slumped to the ground.

There was a brief moment of silence before she could hear the second coming at her, this time a water jutsu following her. But it was weak compared to what she had been used to seeing and she easily dodged the ball of water hurtling towards her. The new ninja on the field couldn't have been over 13, but she was full of determination and began doing hand signs for another. But sakura was faster than her, chakra fuling her legs she raced forwards to the girl chopping through her hands the girl let out a yelp of pain.

Sakura planted one foot and quickly propelled into the air and around chopping the young girl lightly at the base of her spine causing the girl to fall to the ground unconscious. There would be a few broken bones in her hands but no damage that would kill her.

The remaining two came down from their perches in the trees, they seemed older than the other two. More experienced but still not enough to face her. The first came at her with taijutsu bad mistake it didn't take but a moment before he was flat on his back, then it was one swift kick to the head and he was out with, probably, a minor concussion. She looked up to see that the man had been buying time for his friend to complete a jutsu.

Sakura propelled herself out of the way jumping high into the air as a strong arrow of wind sliced through the air even cutting his comrade who was laying on the ground.

"Shit!" she could hear the man cuss as he turned up to look at her coming back down towards him he took out his shuriken hoping she would be an easy target in the air.

He began an onslaught of shuriken as she was coming down she created two chakra scalpels one in each hand to deflect the barrage of the little blades. Reaching the ground she propelled herself towards the man who while backing away quickly jumping into the trees continued to helplessly throw shuriken at her.

It was easy to catch up to him and once she was close enough she jumped up to reach the level of his height and he turned to block her punch. She could hear the bone in his arm crack in two before barreling into his chest where she heard another distinct crack. The ninja coughed out some blood before dropping from the trees. He was barely standing cradling his arm to his chest Sakura could see the labored breathing and pain distorting his face.

"Why are you here, what was the reason for attacking me." Sakura ordered from her perch in the tree looking down on the man

"You weren't our main target." The man spat out.

"Who is."

"Like I'm going to tell a little girl like you."

"This little girl just took out your team." Sakura said jumping down from the tree she watched as the man jumped back from her wincing as he moved. "You won't get very far with these wounds. And this will be a lot less painful for you if you cooperate with me."

She was behind him in a moment, she kicked out his legs and as his legs gave under him he knelt to the ground bringing him to her level she hit the back of his neck knocking the man out. Before he could fall forward she grabbed the back of his shirt and began dragging the man back to her cabin tying him up there.

Grumbling the whole way, "This is probably about those damn Uchiha boys. I really didn't need this today. It was leading to be such a good day and now this has to happen."

After tying up the one that tried to escape from her she went around collecting the other ninja that she had knocked out and tied them up as well laying them on the floor of her cottage. She went over to her cupboard and pulled out her senbon needles and placed them up her sleeves leaving one in her hand. She examined their bodies and made some mental notes about their wounds. She healed the gash created by their fellow teammate so that he wouldn't bleed all over her floor. Then after deciding none of the rest were fatal she moved on to getting information first.

She went over to the younger girl and quickly hit two pressure points; one to keep her paralyzed neck down and one of her pressure points to wake up. Immediately jolting her eyes open the girl had a look of horror cross her face once she realized she could not move and was bound.

"Don't worry it's not poison if that is what you are thinking." The girl's eyes made their way to Sakura her pink hair lightly gliding over one of her shoulders as she jumped up and sat on her kitchen chair looking down at the girl on the floor. "But this situation can be made permanent if you don't answer my questions. Right now you have two fractures and four broken bones in your hands." She could see a tear welling up in the poor girl's eye and her heart went out to her.

Sakura sighed and her voice softened, "Don't worry I can fix your hands, and your teammates too. I just want to know why you are pursuing the two Uchiha boys."

"They were just orders that was all." the girl said, but her voice was too high and she was a bit too scared to lie convincingly.

Sakura pinched the bridge nose and a stress mark grew on her forehead, "Look girl, I really don't like doing this. I am a healer, this…" she said holding her arm out gesturing to her unconscious teammates, "Is not something I love doing. So just tell me the truth."

"It is the truth! Thats all I know!" the girl persisted, her voice attempting to find a resolve she didn't have.

"No," Sakura said releasing the bridge of her nose to look at the girl and hoping down from her chair, "No it is not."

A few more cracks and broken bones later Sakura finally had the girl speaking the truth.

"Ok ok ok" the girl said tears now openly streaming down her cheeks. "They are the sons of the Uchiha clan head." the girl let out. No, it couldn't be Sakura thought to herself

"Explain," Sakura said standing back from the girl, maybe they were not the ninja she was thinking of. They could be their brothers or their ancestors, she wasn't still very sure of who was around and who was in charge yet. So it couldn't be, she didn't.

"We got the info from a team that ran into them while on a mission. We were told that they were separated from the rest of their team and to approach and kill."

"Names." Sakura said. Her thoughts running a mile a minute, she hadn't just healed who she thought she did. It couldn't be.

"Izuna and Madara Uchiha." fuuuuuuuuuck, Sakura thought bringing her hands to her face rubbing them up and down with the realization.

"And they sent you four, just you four?" How dumb were these ninja, trying to take on two Uchiha prodigies with only four, and a mediocre four at that. Were they planning on using her as bait? And how dumb was she not to realize who she was treating!

"The other two that survived the attack went back to report to base and send a message to the Hyuga. That's it I swear."

"What do the Hyuga have to do with this?"

The girl shut her eyes tight trying to think more clearly through the pain, but the truth followed a lot easier under heavy pressure. And this girl was not used to holding on tightly to secrets under interrogation. So Sakura held up the girls forearm and grabbed her paralyzed hand before snapping it back onto the arm making a clean break out of the wrist.

The girl yelped and then held in another scream as sakura asked again "What do the Hyuga have to do with this."

"There was some weird chakra signature that put everyone on edge a few weeks ago. We were hired to investigate that. But last year our clan lost 14 to the Uchiha in one battle. And we couldn't find anything in the area that matched what we were looking for, so the mission changed when we spotted some uchihas doing something weird in the woods. They were distracted and we thought we could get revenge. That's how we ended up here."

"And this time I believe you. Now, this might feel odd but bear with it" Sakura said. That was probably all she was going to get from the girl. And she got the info she wanted. Her small hand picking up the girl's newly broken wrist. She aligned it and began healing it. Green light emanating from her hands the young girl watched in wonder as the pain began to recede.

"How are you doing that?" the girl asked in shock

"I told you I was a healer." she said finishing up the wrist.

"So that's what you do beat people to a pulp then heal them?"

"Yup that is basically what I do," Sakura said focusing on the small fractures in her right hand first.

"Seriously?"

"You all were not here to kill me, you were here for the Uchiha kids. Who are long gone by now."

"But we tracked them here."

"And they were, but I healed them and then they left. You must have lost their trail back in the storm, there was a lot of rain. It was even going sideways here at one point you know." The lies flowed easily from her as she was healing the girl. She didn't know why but somehow she felt this was an extension of protecting her patients, ninja who had come to her for help.

"How long are you going to keep us like this?" the girl asked helplessly

"After you are all agreeing to go peacefully. Then I'll heal your friends up too, and you can all be back on your way."

"So we still have some time to catch up to them."

"Look you have lost their trail, and they already have over a half a days travel ahead of you. They will probably be in their own territory by the time you get close to them. You can't succeed on every mission. Just be thankful that you get to return with your lives."

Her senses had been high and on alert since the battle so she had been brought to attention again when she could feel two chakra signature off in the distance. She wasn't sure that it was the two little heirs, but she assumed they were coming back from checking the area since it was getting to be late in the afternoon. Lowering the girls hand she took out the senbon and quickly knocked the girl out again before she could ask any more questions.

Sakura went around paralyzing the other three as she had done to the girl. She contemplated injecting them with something to keep them knocked out, decided it was unnecessary since they were definitely not waking up anytime soon. Then after getting up sakura had a vision of one of them gradually coming back to consciousness while she was having a conversation with one of the Uchiha heirs. Shaking her head, she went to the cupboard and with her new mortar and pestle began mixing what little ingredients she had to keep her new patients asleep for the next conversation she would be having.

* * *

**Ok so here we are at the end of another chapter**

**will sakura immediately let them know that she knows who they are**

**will she keep the knowledge of who they are to her self**

**who knows! **

**I don't that's for sure,**

** because right now I am just kinda going with the flow and we will see where that takes us**


End file.
